Posts Tagged ‘workout’

Tips To Help You Lose Fat

Sunday, July 25th, 2010

Happy Sunday people of the summer?  Have you been keeping up with working out?  Has your fitness level increased over the summer?  Have you taken the necessary steps to keep your bodyfat low, while enjoying time in the sun?  If you still are a little unsure about going outside in a tank top, or a bikini for that matter, what is it that is holding you back?  What have your workouts been like?  They’ve been ok?  Great.  What has your nutrition been like?  Not so great?  BINGO!  Most people, just miss the boat on this one.  If you aren’t getting proper nutrition, you won’t get the full benefits of your workout.  You also won’t reach your goals in any sort of timely manner.  So I am going to give you some tips to lose fat quickly.

1.  Eat more fruits and vegetables.  If you eat 6-7 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, I can almost guarantee you will see weight or fat loss.  Most people I would assume get an average of 3 servings, and I am being generous.  If you add more, you will be less likely to eat a bunch of crap junk to fill yourself with empty calories and fat.

2.  Write down what you eat.  Writing down everything you put in your mouth will make you realize just what your diet looks like.  It will tell you whether you are getting enough water, enough proteins, or if you even eat ANY veggies.

3.  Eliminate processed foods.  Really, when you eliminate processed, packaged, foods, there is really no way around eating healthy.  Simple rule, if it comes in a box, don’t eat it.  Try this out for a week and see what happens to your body. 

There are my tips.  Try to incorporate one a week, and in 3 weeks, i bet you’ll be liking the new you.

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Fitness Goal- 3% Decrease in Bodyfat.

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

My fitness goal fort the month of June was to lose three percent bodyfat and go from 6.64% to 3.64%. I had twenty-seven days to do this, since I started on June Third. My diet was a little intense, but I did slip up a few times. Some people I know like to keep junk food in my fridge. I would say my nutrition, I complied with about 90% of the time. The workouts consisted of a lit of interval training, as well as a lot of circuit training with bodyweight and dumbells as resistance. The end result- in 27 days, I lost 12 pounds and 2.2% of my bodyfat. Although I didn’t quite reach my goal, I gel had I tightened up the nutrition aspect of it just a tiny bit, I would be sitting at 3% right now. Just goes to show you, no matter what shape you are in, there is always room for improvement.

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99 Problems, but Fitness Ain’t One! HIT ME!

Sunday, June 27th, 2010

A couple of days ago on facebook, I asked a question.  That question was this: “Do you work out? If not tell me why.” I got loads of responses on this topic.  Now, most people who follow me, work out in some sort of capacity.  Some people are looking for motivation to work out, and some people are workout studs and studettes.  Yeah, I just made that word up.  But I also said following the question, that I am curious to hear the reasons, and I think I can come up with solutions to their problems.  Oh yeah, by the way, big thanks to Jay-Z for making that song so I could use it as a title for my blog.  I can’t remember if  “fitness” was the thing he said wasn’t one of his problems.  Might have been something else.  Anyway.  I am going to suggest a few things to a few of the responses I received on facebook. 

One of the first responses was probably one of the most misunderstood and difficult reasons for working out.  A guy has been battling cancer, and hasn’t found a trainer who won’t ease him into the workouts.  Although it’s a scary thing to come by, it’s going to be tough at first.  He’s just got to keep looking for someone who can help him the way he wants to be helped.  Working out can be VERY beneficial to people inflicted with cancer.  There are countless stories about people beating cancer, by following great exercise programs, and a healthy diet.  Obviously it isn’t going to be easy, but if you get with the right support group, exercise SHOULD be a part of your rehab.

Another big one was basically a complaint of no time.  To me, i don’t want to offend anyone, but I don’t buy the “no time” excuse.  If you have time to have fun, watch tv, go out at night, go to restaurants, concerts, WATCH athletic events, you are telling me you have time right there.  You have kids, take them on bike rides if they are old enough.  A dog, take your furry kid on a walk or jog.  I know a guy who gets home from work around 7 or 8 pm, just in time to spend a few hours with his kids.  He always uses it doing something interactive.  It’s great for him, AND his children. 

What if your little boy or girl is a baby?  I think that’s almost easier.  Unless you have severe attachment issues, you WILL NOT be holding that kid 24 hours a day.  My brother has a baby.  That baby has this thing called a cradle.  He also has this thing called a swing.  And a stroller.  Point is.  While that baby is in the cradle, what is stopping you from doing 5 pushups every few minutes?  Or jumping jacks?  Or take it up a notch and do mountain climbers.  YOU.  You are the only thing stopping you.  Your energy put into exercise, will give you energy outside of exercise.  You won’t feel exhausted all the time.  Trust me!

There were also some “reasons” I would like to call, LAZINESS.  A few people flat out admitted that.  Well, here is my advice.  Find a reason you shouldn’t be lazy. Whether you want to look good for the summer, or your health, or getting a boyfriend or girlfriend.  Find a reason to work out.  Barring injury, nothing bad can come out of it.  As for the person who doesn’t like to get hot and sweaty, she lives in Las Vegas.  It’s hot and sweaty here without working out.  Might as well get some benefit out of being hot and sweaty.

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What is Your Fitness Commitment?

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

So you have decided to re-evaluate your fitness plan.  It’s time to finally get in shape.  You have the funds for a personal trainer, you have gone grocery shopping finally, and you just joined a gym(again).  You really want to get rid of that 15 pounds of fat that you gained in the wintertime.  Or your birthday.  Or when your girlfriend/boyfriend broke up with you.  You are READY to go.  The fat will be gone in two months.  you’ve set a weight loss goal, and you are sticking to it!  You have an appointment with your personal trainer for your first workout this Friday.  Everyone is excited.  You, your trainer, and your mom.  Friday comes around, and your friends ask you to go to the new Harry Potter movie, the same time you are supposed to start with your trainer.  You don’t want to miss the movie, but you also don’t want to see it by yourself, so you text your trainer, saying you can’t make it.  No harm done.  Harry Potter is awesome.  I can’t blame you.  You reschedule for Tuesday, and enjoy the movie.  Tuesday comes, and you are psyched about finally getting to start with your trainer.  But work is asking you if you can stay another hour or two later.  It’s not required, but you decide you should stay.  You text your trainer, apologize, and stay late.  You finally do get to meet up with your trainer, a week later, and start your fitness.  The wind is slightly knocked out of your sail, but you do start exercising.   Now you are on your way to your fitness goals.  But the next week, two times you stay late at work again, another time you don’t work out because you are too tired from work, and then you have to take a lazy day off of doing nothing.  So the very next week, you work out once with your trainer, and have a half ass workout at the gym. 

This scenario plays out a lot more than you would think.  I get a lot of people, who are motivated to finally get in shape, only to have outside sources hold them up.  Whether it’s work, or friends, or Harry Potter movies, there is always something that takes priority.  Why don’t you make fitness a priority for you.  Here’s a few questions to ask yourself.  Would you cancel a doctors appointment?  Would you cancel work, because you just feel like going to a movie?  There are all kinds of reasons people think are justifiable to delay their fitness goals, but to me, none of them are.  If you take fitness as a priority and treat it just as any other appointment you have, you’ll find that your goals will come much quicker than if fitness can take a backseat to other things.  Treat it as your job, and it won’t let you down.  Treat it as something that can be cancelled or substituted whenever, and you will find that goals won’t come as swiftly as they say in the infomercials.

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Fitness SPRINTervals-Las Vegas Workout

Sunday, June 6th, 2010

Las Vegas is hot.  No doubt about it.  I finished my workout today, on the track at a nearby high school, and I could not stop sweating.  That heat was just right for this personal trainer though.  I did a few backwards runs, and some 100 meter sprints, and you wouldn’t believe what you can accomplish on a fat burning level with sprints.  When I want to lose fat, this is what I incorporate.  I’m not going to say your situation allows you to go to the nearest high school track and do sprints.  For all I know, you could live in Alaska, where it’s too cold, or you just don’t want to deal with the 100 degree heat here.  maybe you don’t have access to a track because where you live, all high schools are behind security bars, I just don’t know.  Anyway.  You can still do these sprint intervals wherever it is you may be.  If you have a bike, or a treadmill, or nothing at all, you can still do this kind of exercise.  What this is, is basically an all out effort for a short period of time.  Let’s say you have no exercise equipment at all.  What you can do, is do as many jumping jacks as you can in 30 seconds.  Now these, aren’t regular jumping jacks.  These are quick, intense, pushing in, pulling out jumping jacks.  you should average more than one per second.  This could be your exercise for 15 minutes.  Spend 30 seconds doing the j.j’s, then 1:30 resting.  Do another 30, and continue the trend for all 15 minutes.  Trust me, if you do this right, you’ll be tired.  So, to finish this up, you can do interval sprints anywhere.  But to make it effective, it’s the effort you put out on the sprints that are going to make all the difference.

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The June Fitness Challenge-What’s Your Workout?

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

Hello United States.  Your friendly personal trainer, back with another blog post.  This month, I want to join in the fitness quest.  Now, I stay relatively lean all year round.  This has to do with my workout, nutrition, and way of life mostly.  I understand that everyone has certain roadblocks and different circumstances when it comes to reaching fitness goals, but we all have goals.  So what is your goal.  Let’s take this month, and have a little challenge between ALL of us.  Myself included.  Now, what I am proposing, doesn’t have to be this “Ooh I’m so fat and I am gonna turn myself into this mean muscle machine in 30 days!” type of thing.  What if your goal is to just START working out, or to work out for 3 days a week.  Maybe your goal is to lose 5 pounds this month.  Whatever it is, LET’S DO IT.  There is no better time to plan for it, the time is now.  For myself,  I want to join in this effort, and be together with everyone.  I don’t have a ton of bodyfat to lose, but I am going to make my goal, just as difficult as the next persons.  Right now, I am at 6.64% bodyfat.  This next month, I will try to get down to 3% bodyfat.  I want to be part of this too.  So what I would like you all to do, is tell me what your goal is, and what you plan to do to get there.  I am going to be writing a daily journal of some of the different things i adjust, to reach my goal. What will you do?  Send me an email, stating your goals, maybe a beginning picture, some stats, and your plan.  At the end of the month, I want another email, with new pictures, new results and a better you!  As always, if you have questions about your own workout, let me know.  Now, you can hire a personal trainer, you can do this on your own, or you can do a little of both.  We want results people.  We are trying to change our lives, so again I say, LET’S DO THIS!  My email is tony@tonycress.com We have from now until June 30th. I will choose a few winners, and tell their stories.  We’ll also deliver some prizes to the best transformers.  But not Transformers 2.  That movie was way worse.  Anyway, I’m listening.

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Fitness- Not Just About Lifting Weights

Friday, May 28th, 2010

We are back from Iowa.  We had a great time doing the show, American Storm while we were there, and we also had one heck of a workout while we were there too.  I would like to share this story.  We decided, my brother and I, that we could beat the rest of the crew of American Storm while we were in Iowa, at a game of basketball.  2 on 5.  Yes, that’s right.  2 guys against 5 guys.  Now, although this seems like a huge mismatch, it turns out, it was.  But not the way you might think.  The short story of it all, is that Terry(my brother), and I, literally SPANKED the rest of the cast.  They also had our stage manager, and our sound and lights man at their disposal for substitutions.  Playing to 25 by 1’s and 2’s, we beat them 25-5.  The math doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. I know.  But here’s the thing.  The rest of the guys in the show, have great bodies, they look amazing, and go to the gym.  They do their lifts and their cardio.  Their workouts are good, but they lack one thing.  Diversity.  All these guys know is lifting weights.  Now, I’m not trying to knock them, but this was no competition.  No one on the other team had any basketball experience.  Nor did they know how to move laterally, or transversely.  They didn’t know how to change direction.  The thing about this is, you need to be able to do that in life.  It’s that simple.  Now, you won’t necessarily have to guard a former college athlete in the sport that they played, but what about if you go on a snowboarding trip.  You need to know how to move side to side, and twist and turn when necessary, or else it’s going to be a pretty unexciting trip.  Or lets say you are playing with your brothers kid.  Running and chasing them around.  That kid is going to be all over the place.  Wouldn’t you like to be able to keep up with them?  The point I am trying to make here, is that weights and cardio and the traditional workout are great for “bodybuilding“, but for daily life “fitness“, they don’t account for much.  So diversify your workouts.  Learn to do something new.  Take up a sport, or lessons of some sort, or just play like a kid.  You’ll be more competitive when you challenge two former college basketball players to a game they love.  If you are interested in watching the mayhem, I posted it on youtube.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubDXLFH6jLs

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Motivate My Workouts! Las Vegas Fitness

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Wow.  Sitting at the airport today in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and I need to detox.  I went home for an American Storm show, and let’s say my town treated me well.  Anyway, today is going to be a short one, because I think my flight leaves in ten minutes.  One of the guys in the show asked me about motivation for workouts.  He says he always has problems at the gym staying motivated to do that last set, or to push a little bit more weight, or even to just work out.  So what can be done about this?  Personally, I fall victim to this from time to time, and I look in the mirror, and look at old pictures to stay on top of my game.  if i don’t look like I did in the pictures, that’s motivation enough for me.  Some people need music to motivate them.  Sometimes it’s an atmosphere thing.  If you don’t like where you are working out, try a different gym a couple days.  That might be all it takes to jumpstart you back up.  Or maybe it’s a new workout program that will excite you again.  Go buy new workout clothes.  Ask a friend to come work out with you.  Maybe take a few days off, and see what happens.  You might start itching to get a good workout in.  Whatever it is for you, find it.  The slightest changes you make, could make all the difference in your bodies.  Good luck, and if you have any more options, let me know!

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Infomercial Fitness- Are WE Next?

Friday, May 14th, 2010

I have never done P90X. I have definitely watched the videos. I have also never done that Insanity one. But I have also watched those fitness dvd’s. I have opinions on both, but don’t care to go into those. They are definitely both hardcore, amazing workouts, but can everyone do them? I don’t think so. This got me thinking. I need to make a fitness dvd program, that is geared towards not only the people who are elite athletes and who want to get ripped, but also the guy next door, who wants to just live longer, and have a more enjoyable life. What do you guys think? I’d love to have some feedback on this, as I am going to go ahead and follow through with this project I think needs to be done. Any questions, tips, recommendations, or donations are greatly appreciated. You can email me at tony@tonycress.com. Thank you guys for your time. This is going to be one heck of an experience.

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The Fitness Game- Don’t Cheat

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

So, we have you finally workin’ on your fitness. You have decided to make a change. You start eating right, working out, and paying attention to your physical well being. Awesome! Congratulations! I promise you this is a decision you won’t regret. I want to talk to you specifically about the working out part today. I see a lot of things go on, while I am with my personal training clients, or with my fitness campers, or in the gym in general. These things are both good and bad. Yes, you are on the right track, getting in your workout, spending time in the gym or in group exercise classes. But the thing I see in adults, when they take on these things, is that they lose that drive from competition. I will take my fitness camp for an example. Now, the people in fitness camp work hard, there is NO doubt about that. But what I see, when we partner up, or we do team races, is that some people “cheat”, or slack off. Let’s say you are doing partner leg throws. Now, your partner doesn’t want to make you mad, so they only throw your legs at a moderate level. If this were me, I’d beg for a little more effort. Either they are afraid when it’s their turn, you are going to throw their legs with too much force, or they don’t want to hurt you. I think both are cop out excuses. You are there for a reason. To get a benefit out of this workout. By doing this, you are cheating both yourself, and your partner. Aren’t you there to put forth a maximum effort, and to get results from this whole fitness thing? If you just go through the motions, what reward will you get? A garbage one. If you try your hardest every workout, those gains are going to come that much quicker, and you will be even MORE thrilled that you decided to take this journey! The same can be said in the gym. If you push yourself, get a few more reps in with the weights, go another mile on that treadmill, you will REAP the rewards and benefits. Your body is an amazing machine, and you need to realize just what potential it holds. Don’t go for “good enough”. Go for “amazing”!

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